Project acronym
EMISPHER
Project's full title
Euro-Mediterranean Internet-Satellite Platform for Health, medical Education and Research
Project's duration (start date, termination date) from June 2002 to June 2004
From 01.09.2002 to 31.12.2004
Budget data (whole project, EC contribution, NMS partner budget)
- Whole Budget: 2.350.101,- Euro,
- EC Contribution : 1.774.327,- Euro,
- New Member State Budget (Univ. of Cyprus): 158.932,- Euro, Associated Candidate Country Budget (Istanbul Univ.): 169.936,- Euro
Work description and effects (results, patents etc.)
Telemedicine aims at equal access to medical expertise irrespective of the geographical location of the person in need. New developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) have enabled the transmission of medical images in sufficiently high quality that allows for a reliable diagnosis to be determined by the expert at the receiving site. At the same time, however, these innovative developments in ICT over the last decade bear the risk of creating and amplifying a digital divide in the world, creating a disparity between the northern and the southern Euro-Mediterranean area. The EMISPHER project has been launched to encourage Euro-Mediterranean cooperation between the European member states and the Mediterranean countries to overcome the digital divide in medicine. The EMISPHER project has achieved to establish an equal access to online services for health care in the required quality of service for most of the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean area. EMISPHER (EUMEDIS Pilot Project 110, see www.emispher.org/, co-funded by the EC under the EUMEDIS Programme, Strand 2, Sector 1; see www.eumedis.net/) has successfully implemented an internet-satellite platform for various application services in the fields of real-time Telemedicine, medical E-Learning and medical assistance. These three primary fields of applications have been identified to benefit the most from the use of new ICT technologies provided in an integrated platform.
Medical E-Learning allows for the exchange of educational programmes among the various medical schools in the Euro-Mediterranean region, contributes to a higher and more standardised level of education for medical professionals and might therefore help to limit the migration of young professionals from the South to the North.
Real-time telemedical applications, such as live teleconsultation on concrete patient cases, support a more equal access for patients/citizens to the distributed medical expertise available in the region. Also, live telementoring for the rapid spread of new diagnostic and therapeutic procedures is of benefit for both the accelerated (continuous) qualification of young physicians and for the individual patients profiting from the newly learned medical techniques.
Also, EMISPHER allows for a more efficient and more reliable medical assistance case handling, mainly for tourists and expatriates in the region. The EMISPHER network over satellite consists of 10 sites: Casablanca, Algiers, Tunis, Cairo, Istanbul, Nicosia, Athens, Palermo, Clermont-Ferrand and Berlin, of which one is in the New EU Member State Cyprus and one in the Associated Candidate Country Turkey.
In the EMISPHER Virtual Medical University (EVMU) multimedia data sets for educational use in selected medical priority fields (Minimally Invasive & Endoscopic Surgery, Gynaecology-Obstetrics, Reproductive Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Interventional Imaging, Transplantation Medicine & Liver Disease Management) have been designed and produced. All content for medical education have been made accessible on CD and through the central EVMU gateway in internet. A range of medical E-Learning activities, both in asynchronous mode (via internet) and live synchronous mode (via satellite) are hosted in EMISPHER.
In the field of Real-time Telemedicine, since operational start of the network, both point-to-point and multipoint communications between two or more partners in the network have been performed: more than 260 real-time live interactive telemedical sessions. The frequency of real-time telemedical sessions indicates that the network serves real needs from the medical partners.
Real-time Telemedical services hosted include Tele-teaching, -training and -education (as part of the EVMU), as well as tele-consultations in a range of selected medical priority fields: Tele-endoscopy, Tele-radiology, intra-operative Tele-consultation, Tele-sonography and Tele-pathology.
For the medical assistance activities the HealthE™ software has been integrated, adapted and optimised for the EMISPHER platform. Because of these integration and optimisation processes, an increased total number of 762 real-life cases has been handled by the system during the project.
A wide and successful dissemination of the project and its achievements, as well as the raise of awareness, interest and support of stakeholders and decision-makers in the Euro-Mediterranean region has been done by a range of selected instruments, among these the organisation of 4 EMISPHER International Dissemination (Twin) Conferences in each of its MEDA partner sites: Casablanca (Oct.03), Cairo (Feb.04), Algiers & Nicosia (June04) and Istanbul & Tunis (Sept.04).
Overall, EMISPHER has successfully deployed a multifunctional internet-satellite platform for various telemedical services that is scalable and can be tailored to a variety of specific needs of medical end-users. Through the successful operation of the various medical services discussed above, it has demonstrated the merits and potential of such an integrated approach for Telemedicine and E-Health.
The successful infrastructure and services in EMISPHER should be integrated with best practise outcomes from other successful EUMEDIS projects in the Health and Education sectors to build the basis for a Virtual Euro-Mediterranean Hospital (VEMH) as key structure for long-term Euro-Mediterranean cooperations for improved global Healthcare.
What was innovative in comparison with present technology
Overall, EMISPHER has successfully deployed a multifunctional internet-satellite platform for various telemedical services that is scalable and can be tailored to a variety of specific needs of medical end-users. Through the successful operation of the various medical services, it has demonstrated the merits and potential of such an integrated approach for Telemedicine and E-Health.
EMISPHER services respond to the real needs of the medical end-users. This is not only demonstrated by the frequency of use of the network (more than 260 real-time connections since deployment), but is also underlined by initiatives for spin-off companies at some of the partner sites. Obviously, the services offered by EMISPHER are considered valuable such that users are willing to pay for it.
EMISPHER has demonstrated the value of telemedicine services for exchange of experience among professionals from different countries in the region, for second opinion, as well as for (interactive) medical e-learning. The success of EMISPHER indicates that these kind of services can be sold, have a real market value.
All this demonstrates that the satellite platform with WoTeSa/WinVicos telemedical stations is very suited for the envisioned variety of medical services, is easy to learn and use by a wide range of medical professionals from the various countries and serves the real needs from the medical partners.
In detail, the platform integrates an advanced video communication software called WinVicos (developed by engineering office Vedat Gürkan, Mark Palkow) which provides diagnostic level video-communication capability for real-time teleconsultation. The 10 EMISPHER pilot sites have been equipped with WoTeSa/WinVicos directly connected to a satellite terminal. The system includes an off-the-shelf IBM-compatible PC (Pentium IV processor 3 GHz, 512 MBytes RAM, Osprey video capture boards), a camera with F-BAS and S-Video output as live source (e.g. Canon VC-C4), a second camera as document camera. WinVicos is a high-end interactive video communication software which supplies real-time video-, still images and audio transmission. WinVicos is especially designed for telemedical applications (e.g. telesurgery, teleradiology, telepathology). There are two versions for point-to-point and multipoint connections.
Within the EMISPHER project Telemedicine Technologies together with Eutelsat developed and integrated the innovative internet-satellite service platform MEDSKY dedicated to the provision of broadband multimedia interactive services to the health communities. MEDSKY supplies the users with a bandwidth management interface for determining the quality of service of planned sessions, an account management system, store-and-forward second opinion service, etc. Also internet access over the satellite network has been implemented.
What are the most intersting and outstanding elements of the project
The EMISPHER project has been launched to encourage Euro-Mediterranean cooperation between the European member states and the Mediterranean countries to overcome the digital divide in medicine. The EMISPHER project has achieved to establish an equal access to online services for health care in the required quality of service for most of the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean area.
EMISPHER has successfully deployed a multifunctional internet-satellite platform for various telemedical services that is scalable and can be tailored to a variety of specific needs of medical end-users. Through the successful operation of the various medical services, it has demonstrated the merits and potential of such an integrated approach for Telemedicine and E-Health.
EMISPEHR has demonstrated that the satellite platform with WoTeSa/WinVicos telemedical stations is very suited for the envisioned variety of medical services, is easy to learn and use by a wide range of medical professionals from the various countries and serves the real needs from the medical partners.
Deployment of the results (are the results used in the practical applications?)
EMISPHER services respond to the real needs of the medical end-users. This is not only demonstrated by the frequency of use of the network (more than 260 real-time connections since deployment), but is also underlined by initiatives for spin-off companies at some of the partner sites. Obviously, the services offered by EMISPHER are considered valuable such that users are willing to pay for it.
EMISPHER has demonstrated the value of telemedicine services for exchange of experience among professionals from different countries in the region, for second opinion, as well as for (interactive) medical e-learning. The success of EMISPHER indicates that these kind of services can be sold, have a real market value
Do private (SME, industry) partners make profit (start production) of the devices/systems built within the project?
Initiatives for spin-off companies at some of the partner sites have been started. Obviously, the services offered by EMISPHER are considered valuable such that users are willing to pay for it. EMISPHER has demonstrated the value of telemedicine services for exchange of experience among professionals from different countries in the region, for second opinion, as well as for (interactive) medical e-learning. The success of EMISPHER indicates that these kind of services can be sold, have a real market value.
The EMISPHER project participants Telemedicine Technologies and Eutelsat continue operation of the EMISPHER internet-satellite platform on a commercial basis. The partners can make reservations for satellite connections with the Medsky system The costs for the provision of bandwidth and services have to be paid by the partners to the network service providers. In turn, the medical partners in the network can cover these costs and even make profit by selling their medical content and expertise. So, both the technology providers and the content providers are currently exploiting the success of EMISPHER.
Is the co-operation with the project partners continued in next projects (if yes, which ones?)
Based on the experience in the exploitation of European telemedicine projects carried out in the framework of the EUMEDIS programme and in particular the EMISPHER project, an open Euro-Mediterranean consortium comprising the EMISPHER partners would like to propose the Virtual Euro-Mediterranean Hospital (VEMH) initiative. VEMH aims to facilitate and accelerate the interconnection and interoperability of the various services being developed (by different organisations at different sites) through real integration. This integration must take into account the social, human and cultural dimensions and strive towards common approaches but open and respectful of cultural differences: multi-lateral cooperation instead of aid. VEMH is not only to justify and demonstrate telemedical demands but also to integrate the medical expertise in the various regions and to assist the transfer of “know how” from the north to the south and from the west to the east. VEMH is dedicated to bridging a digital divide by establishing high quality equal access to real-time and on-line services for healthcare for all of the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean area. In the meantime, current services in EMISPHER are being continued and expanded.